The Cursed

For the rest of Europe, 1945 meant liberation. For Poland, it meant trading one occupation for another. The Red Army and the communist government it installed brought no freedom. Polish underground soldiers who had spent years fighting the Germans now faced a new enemy — the Security Office backed by Soviet advisors. Witold Pilecki voluntarily allowed himself to be arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz in order to compile the first reports on the Holocaust. He survived the death camp, escaped, fought in the Warsaw Uprising. Arrested by the communists in 1947, tortured, tried in a show trial. Shot in the back of the head in 1948. Rehabilitated only in 1990. Zygmunt Szendzielarz "Łupaszka" led his unit through the forests of the Vilnius region. He fought against the Germans, then against Soviet and communist security forces. Arrested in 1948, sentenced to death, executed in 1951. His remains were found at Łączka in Powązki cemetery only in 2013. Danuta Siedzikówna "Inka" was seventeen years old when she joined Łupaszka's unit as a nurse. Arrested in 1946, tortured by the Security Office, sentenced to death by a military tribunal. At dawn she faced the firing squad. Her last words: "Long live Poland! Long live Łupaszka!" She did not flinch. Her remains were found and identified in 2014 — buried without a cross, without a grave. Józef Franczak "Lalek" was the last of the Cursed Soldiers. After the war ended he continued fighting alone for eighteen years — in forests, sheltered by trusted farmers. Surrounded by Security Office agents in 1963, he did not surrender alive. He died as the last soldier of free Poland. For decades, communist propaganda called them bandits and traitors. The truth came out of the ground together with their bones. Today, on 1 March — Poland's National Day of Remembrance of the Cursed Soldiers — the country stands in their name. Husaria Beats pays tribute.

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